(zhāi): to take, to pick (flowers, fruit etc), to pluck, to remove, to take off (glasses, hat etc), to select, to pick out, to borrow money at a time of urgent need

(zhāi) is a Chinese character meaning “to take.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1996 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, to pick 扌 a fruit off a branch 啇. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to take
  2. to pick (flowers, fruit etc)
  3. to pluck
  4. to remove
  5. to take off (glasses, hat etc)
  6. to select
  7. to pick out
  8. to borrow money at a time of urgent need

Etymology & Origin

ideographicTo pick 扌 a fruit off a branch 啇

Decomposition: ⿰扌啇 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
zhāi chúto excise
zhāi yàosummary
wén zhāidigest (of literature)
cǎi zhāito pluck
zhāi lùto extract
zhāi qǔto pluck
zhāi chāoto extract
dú zhě wén zhāiReader's Digest
zhāi xiàto take off
zhāi yóuhigh points (of a document)
huó zhāito harvest (an organ) from a living person
bào zhāinews digest
zhǐ zhāito criticize
zhāi jìto take notes
zhāi jīnto win a gold medal
22
Total compounds
73
As first character
27
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 22 compound words: 73 as the first character, 27 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

yāo
0.52746,716 co-occurrences
miáo
0.4967,704 co-occurrences
shù
0.4628,406 co-occurrences
cài
0.4443,132 co-occurrences
mào
0.406951 co-occurrences
jiān
0.394612 co-occurrences
chāo
0.393678 co-occurrences
diào
0.3901,374 co-occurrences
pái
0.3874,401 co-occurrences
cǎi
0.3862,574 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

dú zhě wén zhāiHSK 5+

Reader's Digest

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了一个电话,约朋友晚上一起吃饭。

tā zhāi le yī gě diàn huà , yāo péng yǒu wǎn shǎng yī qǐ chī fàn .

He picked up the phone and made plans to have dinner with a friend that evening.

LtnFeb 2026

男星下眼镜变一个人 认少了眼镜真的“没安全感...

nán xīng zhāi xià yǎn jìng biàn yī gè rén rèn shǎo le yǎn jìng zhēn de méi ān quán gǎn . . .

The male star took off his glasses and became a person, admitting that he was really "insecure...

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

...)综合消息:谷爱凌U型场地技巧卫冕 美国赛会最后一金

. . . ) zèng gě xiāo xī : gǔ ài líng U xíng chǎng dì jì qiǎo wèi 冕 měi guó zhāi sài huì zuì hòu yī jīn

...) Comprehensive news: Gu Ailing defended her U-shaped track skills and won the last gold medal of the United States

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

(米兰冬奥会)谷爱凌、李方慧得自由式滑雪女子U池金、银牌

( mǐ lán dōng ào huì ) gǔ ài líng , lǐ fāng huì zhāi dé zì yóu shì huá xuě nǚ zǐ U chí jīn , yín pái

(Milan Winter Olympics) Gu Ailing and Li Fanghui won gold and silver medals in the women's U pool in freestyle skiing

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

美国男子冰球队46年来冬奥首次金 川普祝贺

měi guó nán zǐ bīng qiú duì 4 6 nián lái dōng ào shǒu cì zhāi jīn chuān pǔ zhù hè

The U.S. men's ice hockey team won gold at the Winter Olympics for the first time in 46 years, and Trump congratulated him

東方日報Feb 2026

谷爱凌冬奥金 U型场地赛决赛夺94.75分

gǔ ài líng dōng ào zhāi jīn U xíng chǎng dì sài jué sài duó 9 4 . 7 5 fēn

Gu Ailing won gold at the Winter Olympics and won 94.75 points in the final of the halfpipe

Tatoeba

在教室里请下帽子!

Zàijiào shì lǐ qǐng zhāixià màozi!

Take off your caps in the classroom!

Tatoeba

她给我了一个苹果。

Tā gěi wǒ zhāi le yī gè píngguǒ.

She picked me an apple.

Tatoeba

我们在花园里花。

Wǒmen zài huāyuán lǐ zhāi huā.

We picked flowers in the garden.

Tatoeba

进教室的时候请把帽子了。

Jìn jiàoshì de shíhou qǐng bǎ màozi zhāi le.

Take off your hat when you enter a classroom.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhāi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 摘 (zhāi) mean in Chinese?
摘 (zhāi) primarily means "to take." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1996 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 摘 have?
摘 is written with 14 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 摘?
The radical associated with 摘 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 摘?
摘 is composed of: 扌 (structural), 啇 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌啇 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 摘?
Common words with 摘 include: 摘除 (zhāi chú, "to excise"); 摘要 (zhāi yào, "summary"); 文摘 (wén zhāi, "digest (of literature)"); 采摘 (cǎi zhāi, "to pluck"); 摘录 (zhāi lù, "to extract"). There are over 22 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 摘 (zhāi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhāi: 宅 (residence), 窄 (narrow), 债 (debt), 寨 (stockade). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 摘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 摘 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.